A former Minister of Communications under President Muhammadu Buhari, Adebayo Shittu, has said the administration was full of manipulation and fraudulent approvals.
The former Minister stated this in an interview on a Channels Television programme: “Sunrise Daily,” on Tuesday.
- CAN chairman seeks elders’ intervention in Akpabio-Natasha feud
- Egba Chiefs petition Governor Abiodun to stop sale of technical college land
- Renowned UNILAG academic, Prof. Bidmos, is dead
- Celestial Church speaks after LASU graduate disappears around parish
- Fasting: Commissioner, clerics urge Muslims to embrace Da’wah, give charity
According to Shittu, many persons close to Buhari manipulated things to their favour, plunging the country’s economy into a downward slide.
He said: “Let me tell you, there were a lot of manipulations and we even heard that a lot of the so-called approvals did not emanate from President Buhari.”
Reacting to the comment that the Buhari government through the Central Bank of Nigeria and its suspended Governor, Godwin Emefiele, was printing money to run the economy, Shittu said: “There were a lot of manipulations and fraudulent approvals which did not emanate from the President.
“I am telling you confidently that a lot of it did not get his attention.
“There were a lot of people around the President who exploited their relationship with the President and conspired with the then CBN governor.”
Shittu called on the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission to wade into the matter and “probe properly”.
He said: “I hope the EFCC will probe properly as to how these things happened without the President knowing.”
Recall that the Special Adviser to the President on Media and Publicity, Ajuri Ngelale, had also said many approvals for releasing funds within the CBN under Emefiele did not have Buhari’s signature.
Ngelale said: “President Bola Tinubu has come out several times in fairness to him (Buhari), to say: ‘Look, this is what happened under the previous administration.’
“I think we have to acknowledge the fact that he (Tinubu) understands more than anyone that many of the approvals within the CBN that brought us to this point have no signature to President Muhammadu Buhari and had no knowledge of President Muhammadu Buhari.”
Former President Goodluck Jonathan appointed Emefiele as the CBN governor.
Upon his assumption of office in 2015, Buhari retained him as the governor of the apex bank.
However, Emefiele was removed in June and is currently being tried for charges bordering on corruption.
Follow The Eagle Online Channel on WhatsApp
